Robert Fulford called it “a remarkable glimpse of the underbelly of Toronto,” but the reviews that greeted the publication of Cabbagetown Diary in 1970 were decidedly mixed. The novel’s rowdy concoction of grit and violence and rooming-house sleaze had a strongly polarizing effect on its readers. Many admired the frankness of Butler’s depiction of a sordid environment, and others deplored the obscenity of the language and the dangerous and careless ways in which his characters behave, bent as they are on downward self-transcendence. But Cabbagetown Diary was undeniably a promising debut by a young writer whose brash tone and pungent subject matter were unique in Canadian writing at that time.
The novel takes the form of a diary written by a disaffected young Toronto bartender, Michael, over the course of his four-month liaison with Terry, a naive teenager who is new to the city. Michael introduces her to his friends and his inner-city haunts, to drink and drugs, and to the nihilist politics espoused by some in his circle. With hard-bitten cynicism and flashes of dark humour, Michael relates the vicissitudes of their summer together.
This reissue of Cabbagetown Diary includes a biographical sketch by Charles Butler and an afterword by Tamas Dobozy.

Juan Butler (1942–1981) was a Canadian writer who was born in London, England. His three novels are Cabbagetown Diary: A Documentary (1970), The Garbageman (1972), and Canadian Healing Oil (1974). Butler suffered acute disappointment when the latter—the one he considered his best—proved an abysmal seller. In his later years he struggled with his mental health. He died by his own hand, in Toronto, at the age of 38.

Tamas Dobozy is the author of two books of short fiction: When X Equals Marylou and Last Notes. The French translation of Last Notes, Dernières notes, won the 2007 English to French Translation Governor General’s Award. His work has been published in numerous journals in North America and Europe. He won an O. Henry Prize in 2011.

Juan Butler's profile page

Tamas Dobozy was born in Nanaimo, BC, and has spent much of his life on the West Coast, in Powell River, Victoria, and Vancouver. He has also lived in Toronto, Montreal, and Budapest, Hungary. His work has been published in journals throughout North America, and in 1995 he won the annual sub-TERRAIN short fiction contest. After receiving his PhD in English from the University of British Columbia, he moved to St. John`s, Newfoundland, to teach full time in the Department of Language and Literature at Memorial University. His first book was Doggone. He was nominated for the prestigous Pushcart Prize for his story "Tales of a Hungarian Resistance". When X Equals Marylou was also been shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award.

Tamas Dobozy's profile page

Juan Butler, photographer Michel Lambeth, and poet Milton Acorn were three who spent their lives and their art challenging the status quo. They were mapmakers without whom I might have lost my way.

Michael Ondaatje, on receiving a Toronto Arts Award, 1987